Anyway, Took my Uncle Larry out on the trails over the weekend and ran Pokey's Run, its the first time I've ran this trail, 3 rated.
He's been in and out of the timber cutting wood with 4x4 trucks but hasn't been out in a Jeep just for fun, He didn't go running for the highway halfway thru so I must have done something right.
The trail itself had some interesting obstacles and a lot of elevation changes that were a blast being dry but I can see that it would be a flog fest when wet.
Right off the bat we hit an off camber v notch and we got hung up on a rock and to get clear of it we had to turn against the camber and I got to thinking we are going to fall over, which is not something on my "that would be awesome" list. About that time I looked over to check on the hitch hiker and realized that the top of the cage on his side was only an inch or so off the ground so falling over wasn't going to be that big a disaster.
Got loose and headed of to the next obstacle and reached up to turn off the camera and I had forgot to turn it on......
Anyway got a bunch of vids of the rest of the day and here they are in no particular order, (just for the record when renaming vids it pays to add a number in order so you can get them back in the right place.)
Fairly steep downhill across a ditch and crawl up the hill between the goal posts. When wet this could be the end of some fairly nice fenders.
The Guy behind us needs tires and has no lockers and struggled a bunch before pulling the winch.
Next up: a nice drive down a creek, not deep enough for a water wall tho.
Gobbler's Gulch. If you watch in the distance you can see the white Cherokee getting all kinds of crossed up and Larry says what are we getting into around the corner and all honesty I didn't know but couldn't wait to find out.
Picking the right line and having a lot of flex made that fairly easy, I guess I'm learning a bit.
I really need to start playing with the other camera mounts I've added to the Jeep as that one doesn't seem to show how rough or how far the rig is leaning on some of these spots. I can assure you that its more than what it looks like.
Eventually we came back around and ran it backwards,
There was a bit of 3 wheel action in there but that's what I built it for, besides 3 wheels is a lot easier on it than 2 wheels.
Not sure what the next spot was called but as we cleared the notch someone was saying sumpthin about Lucky J and being in an LJ and being named Jay, I thought it was good enough to name the vid.
The poor guy in the jeep we turned to avoid tried to run that notch and slid off the high side and ended up with tree roots sticking in the passenger side so they were in the process of removing everything they could to reduce damage when he tried to winch off. Then the winch cable snapped, followed by the rear tire popping off the bead. Eventually they got him clear and all was well.
After lunch we turned around and dropped back in the same spot, I killed it right off the bat.
Toward the end I learned another trick, to get around that tree you turn up the hill and allow the Jeep to slide against the steering to get around it without smashing up the top. It feels weird when you do it.
Climbed a waterfall, not very full though.
Wet and covered in slime that would be funner.....
Climbed a hill and found a hole,,,
Don't like flogging it hard so I end up getting a 2nd or 3rd try at some of them and those unannounced drops always make me cringe.
Almost climbed another a hill 3 times, got it the 4th time. Tried to hit a tree somewhere along the way
While we were playing on the kiddie trail the big boys were making a new line off to the left and catching some serious air in the process. Next time I'll grab some vids, those guys were having way to much fun.
After that we ran thru a puddle, only a couple feet deep, then watched a guy running his daily driver a bit harder than its used to,
Amazing what a stocker with some tires and a heavy foot are capable of!
Ran Rooster Hill and took the easy way, of to the right was the hard way and even the buggies were having trouble with it.
Getting close to the end of the day and we ran an obstacle that after the 4th try I said the hell with it and backed out. Had me a bit pissed but I wasn't about to tear something up or bounce off god knows how many trees in order to get thru.
My Jeep is just long enough to drop into 4 holes at the same time I just couldn't get by so we hit the bypass and waited for everyone else to come around.....
Right before we got to that spot another Jeeper had dropped his phone and I think the white Jeep ran over it, that's what they were picking up out of the mud.
So we get line to head back over to meet up with the others and I got to thinking,,,,, this looks kinda familiar, OHHHH great, wrong line and we are headed back for more humiliation and possibly broken parts and bent fenders. Oh Joy.
Something got screwed up somehow though,, I made it thru without smashing or breaking anything.
That was pretty much the end of the day and it was a blast! No flipped Jeeps, only a couple flats and a broken drive flange on a buggy, I got out unscathed and my Uncle had a really good time. Success all the way around.
UNTIL,, I got up this morning to this.
Flat with a nice pair of gashes in the sidewall and it aint fixable... Oh well, I need new ones anyway.
I also came up with a name for my fictional Jeep Fab shop and had a buddy waterjet out a plaque.
Sound it out if you don't get it. Its funny, trust me...
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